As we all know, winter break is just around the corner. Finals week and all the stresses that breed from our impending exams are leading the way, but pretty soon those tests will fade into the bitter chill of memory instead.
What is there to do now that the academic portion of this year is coming to a close? Do we fall apart and plead for winter homework? Fastidiously hold onto every chapter of Kierkegaard left in our collection? Or do we take the time out to get to know ourselves?
College life can become very narrow if all we focus on is academics. After campus shuts down and the facilities board up for winter, students are going to have to continue their lives as people first and scholars second. Most of us cannot wait to spend time with our families, to nuzzle our pets and noogie our siblings, but let us not lose track of a great opportunity waiting after winter break is over as well.
On Jan. 21, 2013 our nation will celebrate the life of an extraordinary man whose words of change still encircle the mindsets of people today. Forty-four years after his death our nation will still be striving for the vision of Martin Luther King, Jr., but we need not wait longer to contribute to his legacy.
Puget Sound Loggers will have the chance to come together and put some of his words into play.
Puget Sound will hold its 5th annual MLK Day of Service on Jan. 21 from around 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The MLK Day of Service is a day of volunteering and reflecting as students visit different sites and organizations to lend a hand.
In 2011, over 300 students, faculty and staff members came out to participate and next year we can achieve an even greater turn out.
There are plenty of ways that students can volunteer throughout the school year. The Justice and Service in Tacoma, or JuST club on campus—as well as other campus groups and organizations—is constantly promoting activities.
Those who may have been too busy with a heavy school load are encouraged to come out and give volunteering a try. To sign up for a project to work on during the MLK Day of Service, students, staff and faculty may go online to the University’s webpage and complete a form there, or email JuST Coordinator Roman Christiaens or Director of Student Activities Marta Palmquist-Cady.
Students are encouraged to come and participate, if not for the benefit it brings to themselves, then for the benefit it gives to others.
“Service means donating your time and resources. You know you don’t have to do it, but you take it upon yourself to try and make an improvement,” Miranda Shelley, a current first-year student, said.
What it comes down to is the inner desire to help someone else. Essentially, service embodies the phrase we are all familiar with: Challenge by choice.
Change starts one person at a time. Martin Luther King, Jr. died as a result of his dedication, but we are all left with the chance to continue where he left off. Change is resting in our fingertips—to pick up a shovel and repair a garden, to serve food to our hungry neighbors, to write a letter advocating for someone else. MLK Day of Service is an opportunity to let the textbooks remain unmarked and instead leave a mark on this world. As the year unwinds, we should take a moment to get reacquainted with ourselves, and forget not our duty to others.
